Story Time

“Eat the Cake” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #114

I always get sick the day before the talent show. Some think it’s the Ghost of What’s to Come, because you know you’ll be sick the next day. All over town, stomachs turn over and twist when February 8th is around the corner. Being the band-aid ripper that I am, I’m always the first to show up at town hall. Why prolong the inevitable? I put on my loosest jeans and my biggest sunglasses, and I report for duty. Crystal is waiting with the clipboard when I roll up to the folding table that gets trotted out once a year for this very purpose...

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“Cassandra Dreams of Brooklyn” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #113

When I told them the building would come to flames at half past three on a cloudy Saturday in November, they laughed at me. The men. The firemen. The red axe-holders ran their chuckles up and around my concern. Even the dalmatian laughed with a clipped bark that betrayed its tender spots. I took my lunch pail filled with the ham and lettuce my mother had packed me, and I walked the seven blocks home. When that Saturday in November arrived, the smoke could be seen from the playground at my school, and our teacher left us mid-sentence when t...

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“Good Thing You Stopped” by Story Time

Good thing you stopped. I could have been on this road all night. This road goes into Richmond. Richmond is all right, but after Richmond is Grafton, and Grafton is rough. Grafton is rough on Friday’s. Today isn’t a Friday, but if you ever find yourself driving on a Friday, I would take the road around Grafton. There are seventeen gas stations all in a row, and each one is worse than the last. Grafton is all gas stations and Olive Garden’s. There used to be a Ponderosa Steakhouse back when those existed, but now it’s just another Olive G...

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“As Much A Princess” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #107

I find that people are often looking for the essence of a thing more than the thing itself. Usually, whenever someone finds something or meets someone, and they feel--If they were to say they felt let down--I suspect it would be because they had an expectation of what that introduction or discovery would feel like and, for them, the feeling didn’t match up. It didn’t have the sensation a child gets when they put together their first puzzle. Everything falls neatly into place. The order that’s accomplished in a moment of personal satisfacti...

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“A Look Back at Home” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #106

Alice would wait until Friday to tell the kids. There was no point telling them on a Tuesday so that they could sulk about it all week. If she told them on Friday, and then told them they could have their friends sleep over, there was always a chance they’d forget about the whole thing in an instant the way pre-teens do in between crushes and rocket maintenance. Her optimism was dampened when Ari, her eleven-year-old, informed her in between bites of Moon Mounds at breakfast that he did not remember anything about their last trip. She balk...

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“After We're Done Talking About the Wicked Witch” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #105

Well, now that she’s gone, can we please get back to the matter at hand? I know that was a fun bit of excitement, but we were trying to have a meeting before that house landed. The next thing you know, we have a dead witch, and a girl from Kansas, and another witch, and now half the day is gone. More than half the day. Two thirds of the day is completely gone, and we still haven’t decided whether or not we’re going to build a new courthouse. Oh, I can hear you now. Millicent P. Freybopper, there are bigger things to worry about than a ...

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“Staying In” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #104

He had tried his hardest not to be invited anywhere. The bug bite on his arm still hadn’t healed from the barbecue at his brother’s house the previous Saturday, and it was all the proof he needed that outings in the summer were not for him. The temperature had been a crisp seventy-one degrees all day with a delightful, slightly intrusive wind making an appearance every so often. It was the ideal weather for a night on the town, and he knew as soon as he rolled out of bed that there would be exactly forty-six text messages requesting his pr...

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“When Wearing Black on a Thursday” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #103

At security, Jonathan remarks that she’s never worn black on a Thursday. Caroline almost doesn’t hear him. It’s not because he’s speaking softly, but because they’ve never conversed. Come to think of it, she can’t remember if she’s ever heard his voice until he commented on her outfit. It was just a black dress that she found in her closet with the price tag still on it. The number four hundred crossed off, then a blacked out three hundred, and the winning discount--One twenty-nine. Truthfully, Caroline still thought that was thirty doll...

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“Tuition” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #102

I know Marcella couldn’t pay the tuition this month, but we have every reason to believe she’s good for it. I know with Stephen, it was slightly difficult, because he was already a few months behind, and we were giving him a lot of leeway, and I know that was a controversial decision for the school board and the, uh, the people in charge of the decisions to, uh, make--I know that. But this isn’t that. Marcella is behind one month, but her mother recently got another job at the flea market helping to set up the various stands and she assigns ...

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“Today The Phone Won't Ring” by Story Time

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #101

Today the phone won’t ring. She checked as soon as she woke up. Dead breath in her mouth. The guy next to her--an aberration. He should have gone home. She made it explicitly clear to him that under no circumstances could he stay the night. He said he just wanted to rest his eyes while he waited for his Lyft. Now here he is. He’s upset the balance. She should beat him to death with the coffeepot, but that would only derail the morning further. Once he’s up and out (“I’ll call you when I’m back from Fiji. Big things going on there. Really...

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“Dracula in the Morning” by Story Time

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #99

My doctor told me that a lot of the whole “I burn up in the sun” fear that I have is, you know, just that. It’s a fear. A fear that’s rooted in trauma, because, you know, when the villagers would come, they would come with torches, and so now, I associate fire or fire-like things with destruction and harm. And, you know, if I only lived a natural life, then I would only see that fear grow to include, um, you know, obviously, fire, and, like, maybe matches? But when you’ve been around as long as I have it expands--the fear--it expands, ...

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“Cherry, Cherry, Pineapple, Cherry” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #98

The pineapple in the third row would cost me four fifty if I recalled to myself, “Bring the coupon you cut. Why do you always forget the coupons?” I forget the coupons. On the way to the store, I stop for groceries, and stock up on dairy, and then, and then, and then I drive to Winding River and leave the groceries--the milk, the yogurt, the ice cream--in the backseat of my last-leg Camry even though it’s July 3rd. It’s the hottest week of the year and one of the hottest of the last four and a half years. The groceries won’t last long, a...

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“A Friend of the Glass” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #97

One night a friend pretended to be my stranger. They appeared at my window on August 7th right around 7pm, when I would have been cutting up the pork to feed to the dogs. I had several dogs, each smaller than the next, with the idea being that I might need a different-sized dog for different moods and depressions. A large depression required my Saint Bernard, SCOTUS, whereas a bad day would simply call for my terrier, Boxcutter. None of the dogs barked when a friend came to the window. She knocked once and the first knock was an introduc...

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“Courtesy for the Devil” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #96

You must have been freezing out there! Oh, you don’t look cold, but, you know, my cousin Ozzie never looked cold either, and one day, he was outside, and a cow kicked him, and the next thing you know, he’s dead. And by the time they found him, his body was cold as shaved ice, and Uncle Yankee tried to tell us that it was the cow’s kick that did him in, but that cow never kicked that hard. I think he was cold, and the cold sensed it, because cows don’t like the cold, and it kicked Ozzie, and he fell down, but he didn’t die from the kick or ...

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“So Much for That!” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #95

The dryer behind door number two has never been selected. The show is called So Much for That! and the goal is to figure out how much something behind a door might cost. If you can guess what the mystery item costs, you can keep it. First, however, you have to choose a door, and there are twenty-seven doors. When the show was first pitched to the network executives, they thought it was far too complicated and utterly chaotic. Guessing the sale price of something without knowing what it is? What skill is there in that? Even a surplus of l...

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